Xingwang Hotel
Chapter 336: Mirror
The aged, curling edges of the rough-textured parchment paper were completely blank—devoid of a single word. Under the dim light, it exuded a strange, yellowed hue.
The air fell into a dead silence.
It gave an indescribable feeling… as if something was waiting in the void.
Wen Jianyan parted his lips, instinctively wanting to voice the question stuck in his throat, but—
Before he could utter a sound, he forcibly bit down on his own tongue.
Now was not the time.
He took a deep breath, pausing for a moment to suppress the urge to ask, then folded the parchment paper and tucked it into his pocket.
“Let’s go. We should explore a little.”
Right now, there were too many unknowns and too few opportunities to get answers. Rather than wasting a precious question carelessly, it was better to collect more clues first.
The group exchanged glances and nodded.
They stepped forward and entered the framing shop.
The space inside was far larger than expected—or rather, it was less like a square shop and more like a corridor stretching endlessly into the distance.
Their dense footsteps echoed in the hollow darkness, layer by layer, deepening the sense of eerie emptiness.
On both sides of the walls, paintings hung at various heights. The frames differed in size and color—some were a dark red, while others were an intense, blood-like crimson.
The wavering beam of light swept across the framed paintings. Wen Jianyan carefully observed the images within, and soon, he noticed a subtle pattern.
Was it just his imagination…?
The paintings inside the crimson frames contained far more landscapes than any of the others—vast fields, European-style buildings… and even portraits.
But the problem was:
The faces in the crimson-framed portraits were all blurred.
It was a completely different distortion from the “resident” portraits in town.
The figures in the paintings were eerily pale, as if wearing masks that concealed their features. And no matter where one stood, no matter how much light was present, the faces in the crimson-framed paintings remained shrouded in darkness—utterly unobservable.
As for those inside the dark red frames, they were all portraits.
Each face was clear.
Men and women, old and young—an unbroken line of deathly pale faces stretched into the darkness.
Wen Jianyan lifted his head, his gaze lingering on the paintings before him. His expression turned thoughtful.
Compared to the other teams that entered this instance, he had one obvious advantage.
Before arriving at Xingwang Hotel, he had already been through Changsheng Building. And it was clear that these two instances were intricately linked.
Though he had no other sources of information, Wen Jianyan could still make a reasonable deduction based on what he had seen in the previous instance.
If the paintings on the third floor of Changsheng Building—the ones connected to the quadrangle courtyard filled with withered trees—really came from this framing shop…
Then the purpose of these crimson-framed oil paintings was clear:
“Imprisonment.”
Regardless of whether the painting depicted a landscape or a person, it was trapping something inside.
And if each painting contained a ghost…
Then the dark red frames likely served a different function—
Just as Wen Jianyan was lost in thought, a sharp gasp came from beside him.
“Hey, look—look at that…!”
“?”
Wen Jianyan paused, instinctively turning his head.
Not far away, Blond stood frozen, gripping his flashlight tightly. His eyes were fixed dead ahead, and in the dim light, his face appeared alarmingly pale.
He swallowed hard and pointed toward a corner of the far wall.
“Cap… Captain, look over there—”
Wen Jianyan followed the direction Blond was pointing at. When he saw everything clearly, his pupils involuntarily contracted slightly.
In the pitch-black darkness where one could hardly see their own hand, only the faintly swaying beam of the flashlight illuminated a corner of the wall. There, two unremarkable portraits were hanging. Under the dim light, the faces in those two portraits looked strikingly familiar—one man was elegant and poised, wearing a gentle smile, but there was something oddly unsettling about his distinct brows and eyes. The other man had bulging eyes, resembling some kind of insect, giving off an inexplicable aura of gloom and menace.
Those two faces were all too familiar. There was almost no need to think—they were…
The brushstrokes on the paintings were sharp and lifelike, making them look almost as if they were alive.
“Wait a minute, why are these two people’s portraits here…” Someone exhaled a cold breath, their voice filled with disbelief. “Could it be that they are also part of this instance? But that’s absolutely—”
“Or,” Chen Mo calmly gazed at the two portraits hanging side by side on the wall and slowly said:
“This is the real reason why they came here.”
“……”
Wen Jianyan did not respond. He simply stared fixedly at the portraits of the Gentleman and Anise on the wall.
If Chen Mo’s guess was correct, then why did every resident in town have a portrait framed in dark red? And why did the Gentleman want to obtain them?
Countless possibilities swirled in his mind, but for the moment, Wen Jianyan couldn’t make a decision.
“In any case, these two paintings must not remain.”
Zhong Shan said firmly, “We have to find a way to destroy them.”
Although he didn’t know why the Gentleman and Anise had left their own portraits in this gallery, Zhong Shan knew one thing for sure: as a member of the Red Team, no matter the reason, anything that benefited the Black Team could never be a good thing for them.
Whatever the Black Team wanted to achieve, he would make sure they couldn’t succeed.
As he spoke, Zhong Shan stepped forward and reached out towards the two portraits.
In an instant, the temperature in the air plummeted.
It felt as if some kind of eerie, chilling presence was slowly awakening inside the frame shop. A cold, sharp blade seemed to slice through the skin, piercing into flesh, sending a deep tremor through the bones.
“?!”
Wen Jianyan’s expression changed in shock.
He raised his eyes and quickly scanned his surroundings.
The paintings inside the dark red frames had seemed no different just moments ago, but now… the images within the crimson frames were clearly stirring. The shadows covering the faces in the portraits seemed to be dissipating, revealing ghastly pale visages and eerily flexible eyeballs.
Even though their faces remained indistinct, Wen Jianyan could keenly sense that countless eyes were now staring at them from within the pitch-black darkness, their gazes locking onto their bodies.
Even the landscape paintings seemed to have shadows subtly flickering within them. In the silent, darkened room, an eerie chill spread through the air.
“Stop!!”
Wen Jianyan urgently shouted.
Zhong Shan had also noticed the abnormality in his surroundings. He hastily withdrew his hand and even stumbled backward several steps, as if afraid something would latch onto him.
As soon as Zhong Shan abandoned his intention to touch the paintings, the eerie disturbances in the surroundings gradually faded, and the atmosphere slowly returned to normal.
Everyone instinctively let out a long breath, their tense bodies relaxing slightly from fear and anxiety.
“Don’t touch things recklessly.”
Chen Mo’s tone was unsympathetic. “You don’t even know what these are for. What if they’re traps left behind by the other side?”
“……Right, right, sorry.”
Zhong Shan knew he had acted rashly. Under Chen Mo’s icy gaze, his large, muscular frame shrank slightly, like a quail.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on the portraits before him, and he narrowed his eyes slightly.
Until now, all the clues had been scattered, like marbles spilled chaotically on the ground—disorganized, erratic, impossible to piece together into a clear logical thread. But at this moment, everything seemed to connect all at once. Like clouds parting to reveal the sun, clarity emerged.
If Wen Jianyan’s initial conclusion had been correct, then regardless of whether it was the Changsheng Building, the haunted street in this town, or the shops along the way, they were all created by people who had “learned the truth about the world and sought to protect the real world.”
In that case, the paintings inside this frame shop were clearly created for the same purpose.
If the paintings inside the crimson frames were meant to trap the “ghosts”…
Then the paintings inside the dark red frames must have been meant to protect the “humans”.
Every resident in this town had a portrait of themselves, safeguarded within a dark red frame. However, something must have happened—something went wrong. The protective power of the paintings had failed.
That was why the faces within them had turned vague and deathly pale.
The residents of the town became trapped on the water’s surface, losing their intelligence and turning into mindless, murderous “guests.”
That was why, when Wen Jianyan first entered the town, he was able to easily break off the corroded picture frame and remove the painting from it.
Because the frame could no longer protect people—it had been distorted and corrupted by alienation.
Leaving his own portrait on this wall was evidently the true purpose of the gentleman entering this instance.
Even before the instance began, he had already learned through parchment paper that there was something he wanted in the upcoming instance that Wen Jianyan was about to enter. That was why he had exhausted every means to use Wen Jianyan’s request to gain entry. Even though Wen Jianyan ultimately did not invite him, he still found another way—collaborating with Anise, or rather, pulling Anise into his plan. In the end, he successfully entered the instance and smoothly found the framing shop.
But how strong was the protective effect of the frame? And when exactly did it take effect?
Was it strong enough that even a top-tier anchor like the gentleman had to go to such lengths to obtain it? And why did he believe that his own portrait could resist this kind of alienation?
If the portraits left here meant they would be protected by the ghosts in this place… then, perhaps, they too could—
At this thought, Wen Jianyan’s fingers twitched slightly at his side.
For a brief moment, he subconsciously reached into his pocket to pull out the parchment paper.
Suddenly, at that moment, a suppressed scream came from beside him.
Wen Jianyan was yanked from his thoughts and back into reality by the sound. He turned his head to look.
It was actually Rui Rui.
The anchor in Locket’s team who could recite and write.
Her face was deathly pale as she stared rigidly at the paper in her hands. Her bloodless lips trembled slightly, and her whole body looked like a startled bird.
“What’s wrong?”
Wen Jianyan frowned and asked.
“I—I don’t know when… this… this turned into this…”
Rui Rui turned her head, panic flashing in her eyes as she handed the paper in her hand to Wen Jianyan.
The paper was covered in chaotic, frantic strokes of ink, completely blackened without a single blank space left. The storefront scene that had just been drawn had completely vanished, leaving behind only an expanse of inky darkness, with nothing else visible.
It was as if the pitch-black void in the upper right corner had gradually expanded, ultimately swallowing and consuming the entire image.
Wen Jianyan furrowed his brows tightly. “You drew this?”
“No, I didn’t,” Rui Rui shook her head forcefully. “I just took it out of my pocket, and the image had already become like this.”
The others quickly gathered around. “What’s going on?”
Wen Jianyan stepped aside, making space, and looked up. “Probably—”
His voice caught in his throat.
“What is it?” Chen Mo noticed something was off and turned his head in confusion.
Wen Jianyan was staring intently into the darkness at the end of the corridor as if he had seen something. His lips were tightly pressed together, and his expression was unusually serious.
“…”
After a few seconds of silence, Wen Jianyan patted Blond on the arm. “Hey, take a look. Is there something at the end of the corridor?”
Blond shuddered, feeling the hairs on his body stand on end.
He followed Wen Jianyan’s pointing finger and looked in that direction. “N-no, there’s nothing… Don’t scare me…”
The path ahead was shrouded in darkness, with oil paintings hanging on the walls on either side, seemingly stretching endlessly forward. One by one, the portraits were swallowed by the blackness, vanishing into the void with no end in sight.
Yet, in some imperceptible way, it felt as though something was stirring within that darkness—something creeping closer, inch by inch, silent and undulating.
Wen Jianyan slowly took a step back.
“We should leave.”
His tone was firm. “Something isn’t right here. Let’s go back to the entrance.”
The group quickly turned around and retraced their steps.
The path ahead seemed endless.
They walked faster and faster until they broke into a run.
Yet, even after running for several minutes, they never reached their starting point.
At this moment, the others finally realized that something was very wrong. Their faces turned grim.
“H-hey, look at the walls—”
Blond spoke, his voice trembling.
Under the dim light, Wen Jianyan turned his head to look at the walls beside him.
At some point, all the picture frames hanging on the walls had become empty.
Instead of portraits, they now held mirrors.
In the mirrors, the pale light of their flashlights flickered slightly, reflecting the frightened and disoriented faces of the group.
Thank you for the translation ❤️Waiting for our husband !!